Iridescent
by Kayse
Summary: Being intelligent doesn't mean that you are perfect. An early accident sabotages Pearl's education and gives her an obvious defect. How does this affect the gem that she becomes? My attempt at a rational fic. Begins approximately 6000 years pre-Steven.
1. Chapter 1

In her gemstone, Pearl felt a jar and a very distant fall. She groggily became conscious for the first time and felt pressure on her still forming gemstone. It felt gentle but firm. It felt constraining. In addition, the rudimentary sense of her surroundings told her that her gem was too contained to generate a body.

Time passed and the pressure became more bearable. She felt the torpor come back over her.

* * *

A voice began speaking to her, projected directly into her gemstone. "Gem Education Message, Pearl-class, repetition seventeen." The voice felt very comforting. Calming. Protective. "Pearl relax. Your gemstone is forming. Listen to my words and rest." The voice paused.

"Pearl, you will be assigned to serve a Gem. This Gem will be your Master." A wave of sweet sentiment washed through Pearl's mind, coming from the edges. It seemed timed to engulf her on the word Master. She felt the torpor slide over her more. "Serving your Master will make you happy. Once you are done forming your gemstone and your body, you will see your Master."

'Is this happiness?' Pearl thought, sluggishly. 'It must be.'

The voice continued. "Your Master will make decisions for you. Let them. It will be easier for you. Making decisions is hard." The voice continue to speak. It went slow, explaining concepts to her. Only rarely did the strong emotions seem to wave over her, but they reinforced the voice. Pearl let the words wash over her and dozed.

* * *

Without any other cues for time, Pearl defaulted to using Gem Education Message repetitions to track the passage of time. Each repetition was followed by a rest period during which time Pearl let her tired mind sleep.

* * *

By repetition twenty three, the pressure on Pearl's gemstone was removed. It was a subtle thing that Pearl didn't notice at first. It worried her a bit that the pressure and the voice were the only two things that she could sense and one had been removed. 'Not only was it removed, but I didn't notice it changing. I'll need to pay more attention,' Pearl resolved.

* * *

On repetition thirty, Pearl noticed that the messages were getting longer, adding new topics at the end of what she began to think of as the basic Pearl message. It seemed like the basic Pearl message was twice as long as the additional message. Should she call the additional message the advanced Pearl message? Would there be even more topics added on later?

'I'll consider it the advanced Pearl message for now. I can rename it if there are new topics later,' Pearl thought. The message seemed to cover a wide variety of topics in simple language, but without context for what most of the terms meant, Pearl attempted to remember the topics by rote. The voice covered formal protocol but never explained what "formal" or "informal" meant. Covered physics, but she couldn't see how physics was different than mathematics context. Pearl knew the word star or orbit, but wasn't sure what shape a circle was. It was frustrating.

* * *

Pearl counted the words in repetition thirty three, determining that the message was 8,321,862 words long. During the rest afterwards, which she named rest thirty three, Pearl struggled to stay awake and counted 214,865,286 word-length beats of pause. 'Were my beats getting faster at the end? I don't know,' Pearl worried.

* * *

After repetition forty two, Pearl could sense that she had more space around her gemstone. The voice encouraged her to partially form a body. She projected light from her gemstone. She felt her consciousness enter the body. Her lightbody filled the area around her gemstone but the area was tight, restricting. She allowed her body to adjust. She filled the space like... something which changed to fit into unchanging space. Generating a body was exhausting and she felt the energy within her gemstone deplete. It was dark and not uncomfortable to exist as a body.

Inside a body, Pearl still had the rudimentary gemstone-space-sense, which helpfully told her that she shouldn't get any bigger. In addition, she had other new senses. Pearl could feel the texture of her surroundings. 'I think this feeling is smooth. I cannot feel any small scale structures when I.. wiggle?' Pearl grasped at a word. She was taking up most but not all of the space inside her space. She could move her limbs slightly but not change position.

A soft light shone in front of her face. Pearl could see it through her eyelids. She opened them. Her head was inside a shape, but soft light was coming from the wall in front of her eyes was soft with hints of emotions. It was mostly an even emotion but as she moved her head slightly she could see hints of some other flavor of emotion from within the wall. But she had no sensitization to tie to these new sight emotions.

Pearl moved her head slightly and noticed that the light seemed to be coming from above her eye level and moved in time with her head. She saw structure of her face casting shadows onto the wall below her eye level. 'My nose is casting shadows onto the wall,' Pearl thought. She recalled some of the basic Pearl message about light and shadows. Light sources and objects obscuring the light. Pearl leaned her head forward, very quickly her nose brushed against the wall in front of her. 'Can a light source cast a shadow onto itself?'

Pearl experimented with brushing her nose over the wall, trying to see if she could touch part of the wall that had one of the fleeting sight emotions under it. 'Maybe it will feel different. Maybe I can figure which sight emotion is happiness, which is sadness.' However, as her nose got closer to the wall, the shadows seemed to remove all of the emotions moving across the wall in front of her. 'Dancing across the wall?' Pearl tried out a new word. It seemed to fit, although she couldn't figure out why.

The wall, the light, her nose all seemed to mostly be the same even calming emotion. Pearl noticed that her hair seemed to have a different sight emotion and unlike the wall in front of her, it did not seem to change drastically. 'That can be hair emotion for now. I will change the name once I have more information to base it on.'

Turning her eyes up and crossing them slightly , she could see a brighter object on her head. 'That must be my gemstone. A pearl. My pearl,' she amended. Closing one eye, Pearl could almost see something else running from her gemstone further up. That something had a different sight emotion.

Pearl let her eyes relax and looked forward at the wall and her nose. Her energy spent, Pearl felt her body collapse back into her gemstone. As she ended torpor again, she briefly thought, 'beginning the forty-second rest.'

* * *

During Gem Education Message forty three, Pearl was able to finally piece together what a circle was supposed to look like, connecting the curving shapes that she had seen in her hair to the mathematical definition of a circle. It was easier to use curves to make a shape where every point was equal distance from a center point. Pearl had given herself a gem-ache trying to imagine how space had to be shaped in order to do that with just straight lines.

After the Gem Education Message in repetition forty three, the voice encouraged her to form a body again. Pearl found that the space that she could project into was slightly taller this time. She discovered that by concentrating, she could modify how much light that her gemstone was producing. After a certain point, Pearl felt the energy required to keep her body formed outpace her supply and let the partial form collapse back into the gemstone.

Every repetition after that was followed by Pearl forming a body for as long as she could maintain before collapsing back to her gem to recover. Each time, she could last for a bit longer.


	2. Chapter 2

In the rest after Gem Education Message repetition fifty, Pearl could maintain her body indefinitely. She could feel the energy within her gemstone almost hum as it began producing energy faster than her body was using it. She no longer felt so tired constantly.

'Making light from my gemstone uses energy too,' Pearl thought. 'If I make it too bright, I start using more energy than my gemstone regains.'

The comforting voice ordered her to make herself ready to meet her Master and wait. The voice had described several outfits that she could wear for her first appearance. 'A tunic should make a good impression,' Pearl thought. 'I will make it match the sight emotion of my hair and make the edges match my nose. Hopefully those are good emotions to portray. I'm not sure which sight emotions means happiness, but I'm think my Master will understand. They can tell me if they want me to wear something else after I meet them.' Pearl felt an echo of happiness at the thought of meeting her Master. It wasn't as strong as when the voice told her how amazing her Master was, but it was still good.

Pearl waited.

* * *

Pearl startled. 'I hear voices. Voices plural. New voices!' Pearl would have done something to express herself but wasn't sure how to. 'I should get ready. They may release me at any moment.'

The voices came closer but stopped still toward Pearl's side. A voice asked, "do you want to take the notes?"

"I can record it." The second voice was higher pitched. Pearl heard a soft grinding before the second new voice began again. "This is Mauve Spinel performing final checkout on the four Pearls before we open them. Assisting me is Bufonite representing the medical perspective." There was a pause and several faint grinding sounds before the second voice, Mauve Spinel, began again. "Checking the panel for the first Pearl now. Systems appear nominal. The Pearl is no longer drawing upon the ship energy. The GEM process reports no issues, pulling up the medical information now."

The deeper voice, Bufonite, then spoke, "No medical issues detected. The body is stable. I can confirm that the gemstone is producing energy. Everything is normal. Imperial Topaz should be thrilled." The two voices shared a duet of laughs at that for some reason.

There was some moving and the voices were closer to Pearl this time. Mauve Spinel began. "Checking panel for second Pearl at this time. Systems reporting nominal. The second Pearl is no longer drawing upon ship energy. The GEM process reports no issues."

"No medical issues. Body is good, gem is good," Bufonite reported.

There were sounds as the two Gems came closer. The voices sounded incredibly close but muffled when they spoke again. "Checking panel for the third Pearl. Systems are nominal. The Pearl is no longer drawing upon the ship energy. The GEM process is er…" Mauve Spinel paused. "The GEM process reports a fault. Hardware failure of visual projectors. The log reports the damage was sustained a hundred and thirty two Homeworld Standard Revolutions ago. That would be when we launched or shortly afterwards. Looks like it failed on… on or before GEM seventeen. Before it would have shown any of the visual lessons."

Bufonite cut in. "Mauve, move. Let me check the medical stats." Pearl could hear Bufonite doing something. She appeared to be louder at using the panel than Mauve was.

Pearl was beginning to worry about what they were saying, like an unknown hollow within her torso. 'Odd that I would associate emotions to my body and not my gemstone,' some small part of Pearl opined.

Bufonite continued slowly. "Medical status is... within tolerance. Its body is stable. The gemstone is producing energy, but at a reduced rate. Showing at seventeen percent reduction from designed energy production with equivalent reduction in maximum energy capacity. Scanning for physical evaluation."

Pearl felt as a warmth began at her head and travel down her body, with a faint vibration accompanying. 'That confirms it. They are talking about me.' The worry dug deeper into Pearl. She felt tears begin forming in her eyes. 'So this must be sadness,' Pearl thought.

Bufonite spoke softly. "Showing lateral compression distortion of the gemstone. That would explain the reduced energy capacity. The Gem's eyes appear to be functional so no physical atrophy due to lack of visual stimulus. Although some excess liquid... " Bufonite swore, "Gangue! She's awake."

Pearl froze. 'Can she see me?' Pearl thought. 'Is it better or worse that they can see me as a failure,' she considered.

 **The three gems stood in a thoughtful silence; two outside** considering **about the one inside the container.**

"Does she have a chance?" Mauve asked softly.

"Medically, she'll be fine. Only quartz Gems really use more than fifty percent energy and that's only in combat situations. But it will be up to her owner to decide." Bufonite replied. "Who is her owner, anyway?"

"Looks like she's your boss's. Rose Quartz," answered Mauve.

"That's a relief then. Rose is the best division lead to take her in."

"Hey, Moonstone's not a bad division lead either," defended Mauve.

"You calculators aren't all bad, but you'd treat this Pearl like an experiment. Rose is all empathy and caring and all that slag," Bufonite said.

Pearl some tentative relief start filling the hollow in her chest. 'My Master will fix it. Everything will be good.'

"Fair enough," Mauve conceded. "Anything more we can do for this Pearl?"

"Not at the moment," answered Bufonite. "The gemstone deformation could be fixed in the long term, but that's over revolutions. Imperial Topaz wants the Pearls opened in three short cycles. She wants to make a ceremony out of it."

"That's what I heard," agreed Mauve. "So long as her Pearl is perfect, I think she'll want to continue the ceremony, but it will be her call."

"Mind your words, Mauve. You're recording," gently commented Bufonite.

"I'll transcribe **and delete it** when I get back to my terminal." Mauve started walking away from Pearl.

Pearl felt and heard a surprisingly gentle thud on the side of her space. "You'll be fine, little Pearl," Bufonite whispered. Pearl could then hear Bufonite thud her way across the floor to where Mauve Spinel must be.

Pearl heard the two Gems examine the last Pearl, finding that one to be nominal like the first two. Then they left.

* * *

'I have three short cycles before the ceremony. However, I don't know how long a short cycle is,' Pearl thought. 'Actually, that isn't strictly true. I know that there are twenty nine short cycles in a long cycle. I just don't have any context for what either of those means.'

Pearl thought back to her contextless lessons. Apparently she had been missing the visual component to her lessons. That was where the context was supposed to be gained. Maybe there was supposed to be some visual indicator of time during the rest periods so that she could develop an instinct for time.

'I'll just have to figure out context for myself,' Pearl decided. 'There are sixteen long cycles in a standard revolution. And I've been broken for one hundred and thirty two standard revolutions.' A wave of sadness threatened to overwhelm Pearl again.

'Focus on the numbers,' she chided herself. She pushed against the sadness, using the objectiveness of numbers as a lever.

'I finished education message repetition fifty. That makes either thirty three or thirty four repetitions since the… incident. Focus on the numbers. So thirty three will go into one hundred and thirty two… exactly four times. Maybe the repetition were based on the Homeworld standard revolution?'

Pearl thought back to her internal clock that she had improvised. 'There were roughly 223,187,148 word beats adding the Gem Education Message and the rest.' Pearl thought a moment. 'If I'm not certain that my word beats were consistent, then that number is already inaccurate. I can round that number some, to make it easier to solve. I will call that 224 million instead. I can divide that by four, getting fifty six million word-beats per revolution. Divide by sixteen, that's roughly three and a half million word-beats per long cycle.'

'Divide three and a half million by twenty nine short cycles in a long cycle and that is… That is a hard number to divide in my head. I can't really break the twenty nine into easy parts.' Pearl stopped to think about the problem at hand. 'Maybe I can get close instead. I can break the three and a half million into a three million part and the half million part. Those numbers look easier to solve.'

'I can do both parts of the number separate. I can divide the three million by thirty instead of twenty nine and get one hundred thousand. I can divide the half million part by twenty five instead and get twenty thousand. That is likely close, since the three million is six times bigger than the half million part and I estimated the three million division with an error that was one fifth as big as the error on the half million division. And the errors were in different directions, so they should cancel out. Six errors high and five errors low!' Pearl's forehead felt warm as she ran through the math.

'Add the hundred thousand and the twenty thousand and get a hundred and twenty thousand word-beats per short cycle. The ceremony is in three short cycles, so that's three hundred and sixty thousand word-beats until the ceremony,' thought Pearl triumphantly.

Finally the wave of sadness that Pearl had been ignoring swept back. Pearl wept.

* * *

Author's Notes:

25 Earth hours to a Homeworld short cycle.

29 short cycles (or ~30.2 Earth days) to a long cycle.

16 short cycles (~1.32 Earth years) to a Homeworld Standard Revolution.

A GEM repetition is 4 Homeworld Standard Revolutions (5.3 Earth years)


	3. Chapter 3

Pearl had two short cycles to plan. Based on the training voice, she would be expected to perform a bow in the upcoming ceremony and while she didn't have an image of performing a bow, the lesson had given such detailed warnings regarding keeping her back straight and bending her waist one sixth of a circle forward.

Pearl also knew that she would be expected to bow toward her Master without speaking. The other Pearls likely had been given an image of their Master to study. 'That would have been nice,' Pearl thought. 'What did I hear from Mauve and Bufonite? That each Pearl would have a different division lead as Master. In that case, I will need to figure out who are division leads are fairly quickly.'

Pearl thought it over. 'My guess is that there are two likely options. First option, that the four division leads will be in a group together, with a non division lead group of a number other than four as audience. As the Pearls are opened, the Pearls will be allowed to go beside their Masters. Maybe.'

'Second option, that each division lead will have some members of their division behind them. In that case, I will still have to pick out the division leads from their group. Hopefully they'll be closer or raised above the group or in a throne.'

'I'll need to observe quickly after allowed out of here,' Pearl thought as she gently pushed against the walls containing her.

'Hmm, observing quickly... I noticed that Mauve and Bufonite were speaking faster than the training voice. Speaking faster with longer pauses between sentences. They were chaining thoughts into speech, which could explain the pauses. The training messages might have been pre-written, so did not need pauses. I didn't have any trouble understanding them, so maybe Gems can understand speech faster than what the training voice speaks. Maybe developed Gems can and partially developed Gems require it to be slower. So the training voice is set for the slower speed to be safe.'

'Taken together, what does that give me? That all four Pearls are used to listening to the training voice, who speaks slower than what may be normal in conversation. Assuming that two samples can give me a reliable baseline. So even a perfect Pearl might not be expected to reply quickly in conversation on her first day. And in general, Gems might allow other Gems short pauses to think in conversation.'

'So I'll need to decide within a few word-beats if I can pretend to be a normal Pearl, or if I should admit to being defective. Maybe I should pretend to be a normal Pearl for the ceremony and let my Master know of my defect in private. Bufonite and Mauve acted like some Masters might be embarrassed to admit to having a defective Pearl in public. I wouldn't want to embarrass my Master,' Pearl thought.

'I will observe for ten word-beats. If I can locate my Master by then, I will continue the disguise, bowing to my Master, acting like a normal Pearl. If I cannot locate them within ten word-beats, I will apologize and admit that I am unable to locate my Master.' Pearl trembled. 'If that happens, I will deal with the the results of that failure.' Pearl wasn't sure if she had exhausted her tears in the first short cycle or if the thought of acceptance made the sorrow easier to deal with, but she could deal with it now. Deal with it for now, at least.

* * *

Roughly half a short cycle before the ceremony, Pearl felt a shudder and leaned inside her container. 'I am being moved,' she thought. Pearl could hear grinding, faint talking and other unknown sounds. That went on for about six hundred word-beats. Then rustling and a light vibration for two thousand word-beats. Finally there were some grinding, Pearl felt her container being moved again. Her container was set down with a thud. She could hear more movement and another similar thud nearby. 'This must be where the ceremony will be.'

* * *

As the time for the ceremony approached, Pearl could hear a faint irregular noise slowly building. Almost like a very large object buzzing. Every so often a sound would break out of the buzz. 'Voices. A lot of voices. Hundreds of conversations at once.' Pearl counted one thousand and sixty three word-beats before the crowd suddenly began quieting.

"Greetings crew of Colony Ship Seven. I will be your announcer for this ceremony. I am Plasma Heliotrope," began presumably Plasma. There was a pause and some popping noises. "This ceremony is welcoming four new members to the crew. Four Pearls to act as assistants and aides to our honorable division leaders." Plasma paused again and the popping noises came back for a moment. "Welcome to the stage Imperial Topaz for a few words."

"Thank you, Plasma," began Imperial Topaz. "Thank you crew. We are here to recognize the work that the four divisions have put into preparing this ship for planetfall and the setup of Homeworld's first new colony in over three thousand standard revolutions. You are all some of the bravest and hardest Gems that I've had the pleasure to work with. If I could, I would come around to all of your workspaces and thank you personally. So let me thank you now, in this setting. Thanks." There was a pause or two and the popping sound came back, for a few word-beats longer than before.

Imperial Topaz continued, "while I cannot thank every Gem in all four divisions, I can however thank their division leaders in their place. I can do that by granting the other three leaders and myself with the honor of having an aide. A servant who can better enable the divisions to continue the excellent work of building a colony on a potentially dangerous planet. A dangerous but viable planet, one of the few such that our society has been able to claim. Such a planet is a treasure and naturally only the best of Gemkind were selected in order to settle this planet." Imperial Topaz then went into thanking some specific gems and teams within her division. Pearl quickly began losing track as Gems were mentioned in short succession. "Finally, as Director of the colonization process and acting representative for Yellow Diamond, it is my honor and privilege to accept a Pearl."

There was a pause before Plasma began speaking again. "Thank you, madam. Let us activate the first Pearl."

There was the sound of faint grinding nearby then the room became silent. Pearl began counting word-beats. After just over seven word-beats, Imperial Topaz ordered, "Attend me." The popping noise, which Pearl was beginning to suspect was the audience showing support, came back.

Pearl began revising her estimate. The first pearl had apparently located her Master and bowed within seven word-beats. 'Maybe I have less time than I thought to react?' Pearl thought.

Plasma introduced the next leader, "Representing White Diamond, I present the security division leader: General Emerald." The audience popped. "Let us activate the second Pearl."

Pearl panicked slightly, and began counting. At nine word-beats, an unknown voice stated, "Well done Pearl. Stand beside Flint there, if you please." The audience began popping again.

'Ten word-beats,' Pearl confirmed to herself. 'I can do this.'

Plasma began speaking again, "Representing Pink Diamond, I present the medical division leader: Rose Quartz." The audience popped and cheer. "Let us activate the third Pearl."

'One.' Light began appearing in a line on the wall in front of Pearl. She could see that the bottom part of the wall in front of her opened downward, giving her a round platform with a raised lip.

'Two.' The wall above the light began moving up and away from her and she felt as something attached to her gemstone detached and pulled away. The top wall was now forming a round wall behind her.

'Three.' Pearl took in the greater stage that she was on. There were five groups of figures sharing the stage with her. They were Gems. On the farthest side, a solitary figure whose skin was splattered with two different sight-emotions was standing in front of a dark device.

'Four.' The next group had a tall Gem with alert eyes. Piercing eyes. Beside the Gem was a Pearl who matched the tall Gem. 'We have the same nose!' Pearl thought. There were approximately eight other gems shorter than the tall Gem and even the Pearl in that group.

'Five.' The next group had a dark gem holding a long object vertically. Beside the dark gem, was a Pearl and a tall Gem. Behind those three, approximately twenty large Gems stood, spaced in a grid. Other than the Pearl, they were wearing the same clothes.

'Six.' A tall Gem with the most hair on stage was in front of the next group. Several shorter Gems were in that group. No Pearl in this group. The tall Gem was now slowly moving toward her from the group. The tall gem's group took a hesitate step or two to follow. There was a dull thud as the short but wide Gem second in the group stepped forward.

Regretfully, Pearl tore her eyes away to check the last group.

'Seven.' The last group had a tall thin Gem. She looked very much like a Pearl except that her Gemstone had facets and was rounded at the top and pointed at the bottom. Her skin was two different-

"Pearl, dear," said the tall Gem with the hair. She had moved another body length closer and was stopped. She was speaking softly, such that only those on the stage could to hear. "I'm Rose Quartz."

'My Master,' Pearl thought and bowed. She could feel the happiness wash over her, stronger than anything that accompanied the lesson voice. Pearl counted five word-beats before straightening out. Pearl focused on the vibrancy of Rose Quartz's hair. 'That must be the sight-emotion for happy,' Pearl decided.

"Please stand with me," Rose Quartz ordered gently.

Pearl hurried to comply. Moving did not seem that hard, luckily. The audience began moving their hands together, producing the popping noise again. 'Clapping?' Pearl thought back a word from her lesson.

Pearl stood beside Rose Quartz and kept some of her awareness on her Master while also following the ceremony. Three of the containers were open, looking like squat circles which had been connected on the backside, away from the audience.

Plasma began announced the next lead, "Representing Blue Diamond, I present the Science division leader: Moonstone." The audience clapped. "Let us activate the last Pearl."

The last container began moving. A seam appeared and the top half began moving up and back. The container seemed to change form slightly as parts of it moved. Eventually, the last Pearl was standing on a platform made of half of the container with the rest of the container provided short wall. That Pearl turned toward Moonstone and bowed.

"Come here please," said Moonstone. Moonstone's Pearl moved beside her and the audience clapped again.

Plasma finished up the ceremony with some more words and the audience stood as the group with Imperial Topaz departed. The crowd relaxed and began filing out after that. Rose's Pearl watched Rose and waited with her. Satisfied. Happy.

* * *

 **Author's note: I had a logic puzzle for Pearl figuring out who Rose was but thought it through from a couple different characters' perspectives. I decided it was more likely that Rose would negate the problem from her end instead. *shrugs***


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rose's group stayed on stage for a few moments until the several thousand Gem audience left. Several of the Gems in Rose's group made some small talk with each other. No one approached Rose's Pearl nor did she begin any conversations. Instead she watched. Mostly Rose, but she also tried to watch everyone.

Rose's Pearl could see the second Pearl getting a quick lesson in stick holding by a striped individual in the second group. 'That must be General Emerald's group,' Rose's Pearl thought. Very shortly, General Emerald gave an odd series of orders. Not just her Pearl but the entire group stood up straighter and began to stomp their way off the stage and out of the theater. The motion caught a fabric on the stick and a green shape began trailing the General's Pearl's upheld stick.

"If the halls were not clear before, I think that they must be now," Rose Quartz giggled. Pearl followed Rose away from the theater. The other members of Rose's group went behind Rose and Pearl and kept some the light conversation. Pearl could hear the loud footsteps of the heavy Gem just behind them.

Outside the dim theater, the hallways were lit by glowing crystals placed along the ceiling. Roughly one third of the crystals were dark. 'That's not exactly true,' Pearl thought. She counted the crystals as she went. 'One dark, two light, one dark, two light, one dark, _three_ light. Then it repeats. Seven crystals are light for every three that are dark. Are the dark crystals broken or dark for some other reason?'

The group went by a branching hallway and several Gems separated offering "Goodnights", "Byes" and other calls to each other as farewell. After a few more intersections, it was just Rose Quartz, Pearl and the short Gem who went through an archway and up a turning incline to enter a section of ship that matched Rose's hair. The lights followed the same pattern here.

"This is the Hospital section of the ship. My office and quarters are behind that door," Rose explained, pointing at the stylized form of Rose's gem on her door. "I've been a bit too effective as a healer so patient rooms are empty." Rose giggled. "We can convert one to be your quarters. Would you like that?"

"I would like whatever would make you happy," Pearl answered immediately and sincerely, if quietly. An expression flickered across her Master's face. 'Was that not the right answer?' Pearl wondered, trying to keep her own face blank of expression.

The short Gem watched from the doorframe across the hall from Rose. She was watching Pearl intently. "Rose, would you like me to get your Pearl set up with a room? She can meet you tomorrow at first light to follow you to your meetings."

"Thank you, Bufonite. That's a wonderful idea. I will leave you two to that," Rose said as she quickly entered her room, closing the door behind her.

Pearl blinked at the door for a moment and turned to look at the remaining Gem, Bufonite.

"Hullo, I'm Bufonite."

'I'm not sure what to do,' Pearl thought. 'Am I supposed to say something back? She knows that I'm a Pearl.' Pearl said nothing.

"Would you mind coming into this patient room and we'll check your vitals?" Bufonite pointed to the room next to Rose Quartz's room. Pearl looked at Rose's door again but entered the indicated patient room. "Good. Lets do some routine checks. Lets check your gemstone first." Bufonite held out two fingers which started to glow dimly. Bufonite gently touched Pearl's gemstone. "Your energy production is still at 83% and you are currently sitting at 76% of your max energy stored. Keeping a body formed is going to eat into more of your juice since you have less to start with." Bufonite gently placed her finger against Pearl's neck. "Say 'Pearl' for me."

"Pearl," she dutiful repeated.

"I see that you are using the traditional style form of speech generation," Bufonite said cryptically. "Lean as far to your left as you can."

Pearl paused thinking before stating softly. "Pardon my failure but I cannot do that."

"What is preventing you from leaning?" Bufonite asked.

Pearl kept her face blank. "I do not know which direction is 'Left'."

Bufonite gently touched one of Pearl's shoulders. "That is your left shoulder." Bufonite touched Pearl's other shoulder. "That is your right shoulder. Left and right are relative directions defined from your perspective as from your center." Bufonite touched her knuckles against the base of Pearl's throat to punctuate the word 'center'.

"I understand," Pearl said. Hesitantly, she added. "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome," Bufonite replied. They continued through the medical checkup. Afterwards, Bufonite studied Pearl. Pearl had to resist the urge to squirm under the attention. "I'm not sure if you could hear, but I did your inspection two cycles ago."

'I did not hear a question there. I do not want to reflect poorly onto my Master.' Pearl remained silent.

"If you have any questions or don't understand something, feel free to ask me. Rose is a friend and I would like to offer that friendship to you as well."

"Thank you."

Pearl and Bufonite cleared the room of any medical equipment, stowing the equipment in a closet down the hall. The room was left with a table, chair and a medical cot. There was a small cushion on the cot.

"My room is that one over there if you have any issues. Otherwise, you should be free to explore or meditate or whatever until the beginning of the workday tomorrow."

Pearl nodded in acknowledgement as Bufonite went into her room.

Pearl turned to her door and closed it from the outside. She then went to Rose Quartz's door and stood beside it.

* * *

After a while, the lights crystal began to darken. When there were only four lights lit, the hallways dimmed and it became difficult to see far. There was only just enough light to navigate.

Pearl counted. After 3791 word-beats, another light crystal went out and the remaining lights reoriented so that the three crystals lit out per ten crystals total were spread out along the series.

Pearl counted again. 3726 word-beats. One crystal lit in each set of ten.

Pearl counted again. 3761 word-beats. 'Now there are two crystals lit. The light is coming back,' Pearl thought. 'It repeats, turning out lights until there's only one crystal lit, then turning on lights until all ten are lit. It's telling time, mimicking natural light.' Pearl grinned to herself in the dark hallway. '

* * *

After the crystals turned to five lights, they suddenly began glowing brightly. The hallway was bright enough to see until it curved out of sight. 'That must be the sign to begin working again.'

Shortly afterward, Rose bustled through her door, carrying an armful of objects. She startled a bit to see Pearl standing beside her door and had to juggle to prevent from dropping any. "Ah! Pearl. Did you have a good rest?"

"Yes Master. I am ready to help if I can."

"Oh. Would you like to hold half of my presentation as we walk to the meeting?"

"It would be my pleasure." Pearl took the proffered objects, and the two Gems began walking down the halls. They left the Medical section went through several generic hallways before entering a new section.

Rose and her Pearl entered a room containing General Emerald, Moonstone and their respective Pearls. There were four seats around a round table and they were matched to the four division leaders' gemstones. Each seat was large to fit the larger than average Gem leaders. Rose deposited her presentation objects onto the table in front of her seat and took the objects from her Pearl to do the same. Rose's Pearl noticed a similar stack of objects in front of General Emerald's chair and none in front of Moonstone's.

As the three present masters made small talk, Rose's Pearl stood to the left of Rose's chair and discreetly watched the other Pearls.

Across from Rose's seat was General Emerald's seat. General Emerald was sitting with her Pearl behind and to her right. Emerald's Pearl was in a uniform that matched General Emerald's but with a skirt instead of pants. Unlike at the ceremony, Emerald's Pearl was standing in an exacting stance, with her feet apart, left hand behind her back and right hand holding the flag so the base of the flag rested against her right foot.

To Rose's right was Moonstone's seat. Moonstone was sitting with her Pearl to her left. Moonstone's Pearl had modified her outfit slightly, adding a short coat to match her master. The two ended up looking surprisingly similar, both having gemstones in their foreheads and similar builds.

The three masters continued discussing the ceremony and various going ons, although none specifically mentioned the Pearls in the room with them.

Eventually, Imperial Topaz strolled into the room, with her Pearl trailing behind her. "Excellent, you are all on time," Imperial Topaz greeted her fellows. Topaz's Pearl juggled her double armful of objects and managed to place them on the table near Topaz's seat, to Rose's left. Her Pearl began to sort and stack the objects immediately. "Moonstone, how is my ship doing this morning?" Topaz asked.

"The reactors two through four are still overburdened as we refit reactor one." Moonstone reported. "We have a minor energy surplus most of the time, but we're having to tap into some of the long term energy storage to satisfy the spikes in demands. At our current usage rate, the energy storage should have three standard revolutions." To emphasize the point, Moonstone's Pearl began projecting a graph which showed a line ramping downwards are a slight angle.

"How goes the refit and repair of reactor one?" Imperial Topaz asked.

"We should have the reactor one full operational within fifty short cycles and the long term energy storage refilled within approximately twenty short cycles," Moonstone assured. Her Pearl added a second line to the graph that ramped down for a small length, ramped up fairly quickly and leveled off.

Imperial Topaz and Moonstone spoke at length regarding a few other ship systems, which mostly appeared to be working normally. Moonstone's Pearl did not appear to have graphs the other ship systems, so Moonstone began projecting the relevant graphs and diagrams herself. Moonstone went on to talk about how her division was not beginning any new experiments while the gemforges were dedicated toward repairing the reactor.

"What is the status of your troops?" Imperial Topaz asked General Emerald.

"We're ready for nearly anything." General Emerald said. "With Rose onboard, malingering is at an all time low. We will be focusing on hand-to-hand drills while the energy restrictions are in place." The General showed a few examples of spars and drills by projecting them from one of the objects in front of her. "Although it's been getting a bit routine without new combatants to challenge them. Are you sure you can't spare a predator beastie for a challenge, Rose?"

"That's not why we keep the creatures in stasis and you know it," Rose countered. "Although Bufonite has a seabeast that's too big to stasis and it has been getting aggressively bored. Next time it might bite someone softer than her."

"Sounds fun. Let me know if you need us to dissuade it of the notion that it's the biggest fish in the pond."

"I'll ask Bufonite, but try not to hurt the poor thing."

"We won't. You're also welcome to join the spars, Rose Quartz," General Emerald stressed the last word.

"I might swing by," Rose hedged.

"What is your Health and Wellness report?" Imperial Topaz asked.

"We had a few minor injuries but everyone should be fixed within the cycle. We're exceeding the energy restriction due to maintaining the creature's habitats or stasis, respectively, but we've cut energy everywhere else we can." Rose used an object to display a circle that had been sectioned as she spoke about energy usage. Rose used another to show a room with several Gems on a stage above a hundred other Gems. " Plasma has found some non-powered music instruments to put together several bands. She will be allocating bands to different recreation areas during the energy restrictions. She has enough copies of authorized music to keep everything on track."

Imperial Topaz nodded. She looked at the three other leaders. "For your awareness, we're getting back some of the data from the first probes. They will orbit the planet for twenty cycles mapping it out before we select our landing sites. Once my planners have some prospective sites picked, you'll receive copies of the data so you can advice me on picking one. If you have any inputs on sensors for the next set of probes, get with Moonstone. My architects have a prospective first draft on the structure to be built on the planet's moon, but it will be refined as we get better data." Imperial Topaz used the objects to begin showing the plans for the moon structure. As Rose's Pearl understood it, it was to become a combination warp nexus and spaceship dock.

The meeting continued into ever deeper levels of detail regarding the running of the ship and the planning of the prospective colony until Imperial Topaz drew the meeting to a close. All ten crystals in the ceiling were glowing by then.

Imperial Topaz left first, with her Pearl scrambling to gather the presentation objects and follow after her.

General Emerald shapeshifted her left hand large, swept the objects into her hand, and closed it into a fist. She left with her Pearl marching with the flag beside her.

Moonstone led her Pearl away, the two of them speaking quietly. Rose's Pearl could hear a "that was a nice projection" from Moonstone as they passed.

'All I managed to accomplish was clearing my own room and spending all night teaching myself to tell time,' Rose's Pearl thought to herself, as she followed Rose through the hallway.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Write a scene with four Pearls in it, they said. It'll be easy, they said.**


End file.
